The Kansas City Royals suffered a huge blow on Thursday, when it was confirmed that one of their starting infielders suffered a season-ending injury.
The team is perhaps the weakest in the AL Central division, but they have an outside chance to fight for a playoff berth this year.
They will have to do it without Adalberto Mondesi, though, who suffered a torn ACL this week.
“Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore said Adalberto Mondesi has an ACL tear in his left knee,” Alec Lewis of The Athletic tweeted.
Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore said Adalberto Mondesi has an ACL tear in his left knee.
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) April 28, 2022
He suffered the injury on Tuesday night while trying to scramble back to first base on a pickoff attempt.
The Royals Will Miss Mondesi
Mondesi is definitely not the perfect hitter, and his approach is flawed.
He is, however, very gifted and speedy: he is capable of hitting 15-20 home runs and stealing over 40 bases over a single season, and that dynamic player won’t be available for the Royals as they try to shock the world and make a run at the playoffs in 2022.
He wasn’t having a very productive start of the year, slashing .140/.204/.140 with no homers and five stolen bases.
But he had the potential for much more, and is an elite contributor on defense and on the basepaths.
His absence will be definitely felt, as the Royals’ middle infield depth is not that strong and other middle infield options to take over for him, such as Bobby Witt Jr. and Whit Merrifield, are also struggling to open the year.
Nicky Lopez could slide to shortstop and Merrifield could return to his natural second base position in Mondesi’s absence.
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